If Kim Kardashian West wants to be a lawyer, I'm totally behind her – and you should be too

When it comes to those in the public eye, there are few more polarising figures than Kim Kardashian West. In fact, the very mention of the word “Kardashian” makes many people shudder with rage.

This reaction was not in short supply when, in an interview with US Vogue, the reality star and businesswoman said that she is training to be a criminal justice lawyer. After beginning a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco last summer, she is now being mentored by two lawyers, Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney, who are helping her log her required weekly supervised study hours.

Kardashian plans to take the bar exam – which determines whether someone can practice law – in 2022. She said: “First year of law school, you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts. To me, torts is the most confusing, contracts the most boring, and crim law I can do in my sleep.”

In response, many people have reacted with mockery and downright criticism. One person wrote: “This is why we don't take her seriously. A criminal justice lawyer? Why make a mockery of the hard work, diligence, respectability and INTELLIGENCE it takes to be a lawyer? You can have ambition, but not too much. Please stay in your lane.” Another snarked: “Walmart’s giving out law degrees?”

A common response online was “you can do anything if you have money these days”, accompanied by thinly veiled references to the US college admissions scandal allegedly involving Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman. Iconic GIFs of Elle Woods – the fictional lawyer made famous by Reese Witherspoon in the film Legally Blonde – were also widely shared.

These reactions are unsurprising. In economies where wages have stagnated and aftershocks from the economic crash are still being felt, people inevitably dislike “influencers” and reality stars who live luxuriously in return for sharing snippets of their lives with us mortals. If these people cured cancer, many would probably still find something negative to say about it while a mood of such grievance – caused by economic inequality – prevails.

It’s also true that, particularly in America, you can do a lot of things if you have money. This isn’t to say Kardashian isn’t doing the work, but she clearly has the privilege to hire private tutors, childcare and structure her life around studying in a way that many people working a minimum wage nine-to-five would struggle to. The college admissions scandal, or president Trump paying a $25m settlement to students of his now shuttered “fraudulent” Trump University, are recent examples of why people are rightly distrustful of the US higher education system.

Though I can’t help but think that those sneering at Kardashian by sharing Legally Blonde GIFs, or saying she should “stay in her lane”, are missing the point. After all, the film is all about a fiercely intelligent woman who overcomes sexist stereotypes to step out of her “lane” and become an incredible lawyer.

Ultimately, there’s no reason why Kardashian couldn’t follow in these footsteps. Alongside her sisters, she has made billions of dollars and almost single handedly shaped digital influencer culture. There will be many books written about how the Kardashians, led by matriarch Kris Jenner, have shaped how we share content and monetise online platforms. Over the past decade, Kardashian has shown herself as a hard worker, a shrewd communicator and a strategic thinker – key transferable skills for a career in law.

Being a lawyer also runs in Kardashian’s blood, with her father Robert Kardashian being part of OJ Simpson’s murder trial defence team in a case which defined the 1990s. Criminal justice is an interest she has carried into her adult life. She’s frequently said publicly that, had she not become a reality star, she would have trained by now to be a forensic investigator.

Last year when she played an active role in the release from prison of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old black woman who had been in an Alabama prison on a non-violent drug charge since 1996 – and it was this which finally motivated her to begin her studies. Kardashian visited President Trump in the White House to argue her case and he eventually granted Johnson clemency.

Discussing her decision to officially begin her law career, she said: “I had to think long and hard about this… I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society. I just felt like the system could be so different, and I wanted to fight to fix it, and if I knew more, I could do more.”

Whatever your views on Kardashian’s fame, surely most of us can agree that is wrong to sneer at a woman wanting to enter higher education and expand her skillset. People don’t have a problem with men like Kardashian’s husband Kanye West starting new careers they aren’t strictly qualified for, like fashion design.

Women like Kardashian are told to “stick in their lane”, despite being relentlessly criticised for being “famous for no reason”, only to face sneering when they decide to pursue a “real career”.

Ultimately it’s hard to separate this wave of criticism of Kardashian from the structurally sexist assumption that law is a man’s world, for “serious” people, where beautiful women like her do not fit in. Almost two decades on, it feels like the sexist plot of Legally Blonde all over again. And you know what? I object!